Elsevier

Cognitive Psychology

Volume 11, Issue 1, January 1979, Pages 1-37
Cognitive Psychology

Decision processes in verifying category membership statements: Implications for models of semantic memory

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(79)90002-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Current models of semantic memory assume that natural categories are well-defined. Specific predictions of two such models, the Smith, Shoben, and Rips (1974a) two-stage feature comparison model and the Glass and Holyoak (1974/75) ordered search model, were tested and disconfirmed in Experiment I. We propose an alternative model postulating fuzzy categories represented as sets of characteristic properties. This model, combined with a Bayesian decision process, accounts for the results of three additional experiments, as well as for the major findings in the semantic memory literature. We argue that people verify category membership statements by assessing similarity relations between concepts rather than by using information which logically specifies the truth value of the sentence. Our data also imply that natural categories are fuzzy rather than well-defined.

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      Two examples will be mentioned. McCloskey and Glucksberg (1979) proposed that when a category membership sentence is presented for verification, properties of the subject and predicate concepts are retrieved and compared. Each comparison yields either evidence that the sentence is true or evidence that it is false.

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    This work was performed while the first author held a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellowship. The research was partially supported by PHS Research Grant MH23401, S. Glucksberg, principal investigator.

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